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It was another lovely day at the Wartwood Farmers Market, and Frank was serving up some elotes. Turns out Amphibia did have everything to make Mexican-style grilled corn just the way his father makes them. At the same time, Anne was in charge of running the Plantar family's stand. And she was able to attract more customers by playing some of her music on her phone and the smell of grilled corn.
Her phone was set inside a metal bucket that was turned on its side, allowing the music to come out louder. It was set off to the side of the counter while Anne accepted two copper coins from Mrs. Croaker for buying one of the grilled cobs.
"Here you go, dearie." She said to Anne, before Frank brought over her elote.
"One elote for you, Mrs. Croaker!" Frank said, handing her the delicious-looking corn. "Catch you later, Mrs. Croaker."
"Oh, they'll never catch me!" Mrs. Croaker laughed as she walked away.
"Man, today's been really good for business," Anne said with a hand on her hip, impressed with all the foot traffic they've been getting.
"Well, it's all thanks to you and your music," Frank said, placing another corn on the grill for the next customer.
The compliment made Anne blush again. These new foreign feelings she felt for her best friend were only growing every day she spent time with him. So much so that the smallest compliments made her cheeks flush and her heart beat faster. "W-Well, I wouldn't take all the credit. Your elotes are pretty great too."
Just like Anne, Frank blushed at her compliment. "Thanks." He said, scratching the back of his head, as the two of them smiled at each other with blushes.
However, they stopped when the music did. "Oh, shoot. Hang on." She picked up her phone and started scrolling through her songs. However, the Thai girl stopped when she saw a band she hadn't heard of since she was eight and gasped. "Solid Bold!"
But when Frank heard that name, he cringed. "Augh, isn't that the single of that summertime song?"
"Yeah! Summertime Loving: Loving in the Summer (Time)!" Anne exclaimed with a big smile as she held up her phone. "Aw, this is my jam right here!"
"What? That song sucks." Frank said, annoyed.
"Nah, you were all into it too, I remember." Anne said, waving her left hand.
"Yeah, just for that one summer camp, and then I realized how lame it was," Frank said with a scowl.
Anne blew a raspberry and waved him off. "Whatever, man. Once we play this, all the good memories will come flooding back, and you'll see. You'll see whose jam it is." She said with confidence.
"I'm not listening to that trash."
"You need to get this corn out of your ears, man, and listen to the summer." Anne said, pressing play on the song.
She placed it back into the bucket and let the music come out louder. Frank was standing there with his arms crossed and an unimpressed expression. Watching as Anne started tapping her foot before she began to dance to the music.
"Yeah, yeah, now we're talking!" Anne said as she continued dancing.
However, the fun ended when she backed up, and one of her swinging arms crashed into a saucepot filled with sparkling blueberries held by the jolliest frog in town, Barry.
He was a tall, plump blue frog with round eyes, two large buck teeth, pink cheeks, and a light blue underbelly. He had bright red bushy hair that was mostly covered by a dark brown top hat with a maroon band around it, along with a patch. For clothes, Barry wore a plum purple dress-coat with a yellow bow-tie, striped pink pants, and black dress-shoes.
Barry was knocked to the ground as his berries were dropped onto a mud puddle. "Gracious me!" He exclaimed with a funny voice.
"Oh shit! Are you alright, Barry?" Frank quickly rushed over and helped the frog up to his feet.
"Oops. Sorry about that, Barry. I didn't see you there, Barry." Anne said.
While Barry looked sad that his berries were ruined, it didn't seem to destroy his spirits. "Shucks, kids. Don't worry about it." He said, giving the two best friends a wink. "Nothing gets Barry down."
Barry placed his hands behind Anne and Frank's ears and pulled out two lollipops from thin air. They both gasped in amazement and took the candy. "Barry, you can make anyone's day better." Frank said with a kind smile.
"Have a 'Barry' good day." The tall frog said to them with a chuckle as he walked off with his saucepot. A second later, he appeared behind the counter of his stand, which was named Barry's Berries. "Barry's here!" The crowd of kids starts cheering at Barry as they eagerly gather around.
"There goes Barry, the sweetest frog in all of Wartwood," Anne said with a smile as she watched from afar. At the same time, the song was still playing. "Okay, yeah, this song's lame."
"Told you, man," Frank said as Anne grabbed her phone from the bucket. Stopping the music, she deleted it from her library.
"Man, I guess some stuff just doesn't hold up today," Anne said, as she tried to find another song.
However, as she was doing so, the Thai girl noticed movement in front of her and looked up. Across from their stand was the Flour Breads & Pastries stand. However, the only person working there was the local creepy frog girl Maddie. She was using a cauldron to make what was likely a potion.
"Hey, Maddie! Happy market day!" Anne greeted her with a hand wave.
Maddie creepily and slowly twisted her head backwards and stared back at Anne. She then smiled eerily at the human girl.
Anne laughed at this. "Classic creepy Maddie."
"Uh, yeah," Frank said; still a little creeped out by the girl. He opened the barrel that housed all the corn they were going to be cooking.
"Here's another corn." Sprig's hand popped out, holding a new corn on a cob.
"Thanks, Sprig." Frank took the corn and threw it on the grip. He watched it with a smile, until the realization hit him. Opening the barrel lid again, he looked down to see the pink frog huddled inside the barrel. "Uh, what are you doing?"
"Hiding. Ever since Maddie and I got engaged, things between us have been... awkward." Sprig told him.
"But aren't you in love with Ivy?" Frank asked as Anne walked over and looked inside at Sprig.
"Shhh! Don't say it out loud! What if Ivy's around?" Sprig nervously poked his head out to scan the area to see if his crush was around. Luckily, she wasn't.
"Dude, if you don't want to be engaged to Maddie anymore, just go break it off," Anne said.
"Break up with her? To her face?!" Sprig asked incredulously as he popped out of the barrel in shock. He then climbed onto Anne and hid in her hair, much to her annoyance. "She'll kill me!"
"No, she wouldn't." Frank rolled his eyes. The three friends looked over to the other stand to see Maddie laughing maniacally as she started chopping up a long roll of bread. "....okay, I see your point."
Sprig whimpered in fear and ducked back into Anne's hair. Sighing, Anne pulled him back out and set the little frog boy down behind the stand. "Look, breakups are no big deal. I used to do it for my friends all the time." She told Sprig. "They called me the Breakup Queen. Also, Angel of Death."
"So you did the dirty work while Sasha and everyone else got to be cowards?" Frank asked callously with his arms crossed. "Letting you take the fall for the anger and sadness the person felt after being broken up?"
There was a pause as Anne stared at him silently. "W...Well...yeah, when you say it like that, it sounds bad."
"Perfect!" Sprig said, pointing at Anne. "You go break up with her for me, and I'll go find a new hiding spot."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Anne's not gonna break up you and Maddie. You're gonna be a man and do it yourself." Frank said sternly.
"Aww! But I don't wanna be a man!" Sprig whined out loud. "I'm only 10!"
"And Maddie deserves a proper breakup."
"Dude, it's cool." Anne cut in, earning a surprised look from Frank. "I'll do it."
"You're kidding me, right?" Frank asked incredulously.
"It'll be fine. Trust me; I've done this a million times." Anne said before walking over to Maddie's stand. However, not even halfway there, she stopped and watched the girl.
Maddie placed three doughy figures in a baking oven and stepped back. When Anne saw them, she saw that the figures were in the shape of herself, Frank, and Sprig. Maddie turned towards Anne and smiled as she shut the oven door with a viewing window. The Thai girl could almost hear the figures letting out an agonizing shriek as if they were being burned and melted alive.
And that was the moment Anne went nope. Narrowing her eyes, she walked back to Frank and Sprig at the stand. "So what's plan B, Angel of Death?" The former asked sarcastically.
"We'll try breaking up by text. That would be better." Anne said. Frank shook his head in disappointment as she took a pencil and paper out of her bag.
"Anne, that sounds like a terrible thing to do. I've heard horror stories of guys that do the same thing with their girls, and it doesn't always end well." Frank said, trying to talk her out of the mess she was getting them into. The stories he heard from other inmates told him how much of a bad idea this was. Heck, some of those guys were in juvy because they had their hearts broken.
"It's not super cool, but, hey, everybody's done it at least once," Anne said, rolling her eyes.
Sprig laughed at that. "Now we're all cowards."
"Nope. Just the two of you." Frank said, walking back to the grill and cooking the corn on it off.
Setting the paper on the stand, Anne wrote a letter on it.
Dear Maddie,
I break up with you.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
-Sprig
She then folds it into a paper airplane, much to the amazement of Sprig. With the letter ready, Anne threw the airplane across the other side. It did a loop and then flew into Maddie's hair. Grabbing it, the frog girl turned around and read the note.
Once she finished reading it, Maddie looked up from the letter and gave an unsettling glare at Frank, Anne, and Sprig. The girl and pink frog both smiled and waved nervously at her. Frank just held up a corn on the cob with his tongs, offering her an elote. However, Maddie only looked at them in distraught, turned around, and left.
"Huh. That wasn't so bad." Sprig said.
"See? Like I said, no problem," Anne said, leaning on the stand as they both high-fived. Frank rolled his eyes and placed his lollipop in his mouth.
But there was a problem. Someone was hurt by the kids' actions and was mad. Someone was furious enough at the kids for what they'd done that they were willing to hurt them back. And they'll make sure Frank, Anne, and Sprig pay.
The next day came, and Frank had just finished making himself and Anne some delicious cheese omelets. Once he was sure Anne's omelet was cooked the way she liked it, the young boy brought it over to her and used his spatula to scoot it onto her plate. Frank then sat down on the other side of the table, and they both started eating their breakfast in silence. Today was going to be a busy day on the farm, and they would need all their strength.
However, the silence was broken when Anne started to sing in between bites of her eggs. "It's summertime...Lo-o-ovin'...Loving in the summertime." She sang, much to the confusion of Frank.
"What are you doing?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"What?" Anne asked, oblivious to what she was doing.
"You're singing that song."
"I am?" Anne asked, surprised.
Now Frank was annoyed. "Yes, please stop. It's annoying."
"I guess it's pretty catchy." Anne shrugged. Still confused, she continued to eat her omelet. However, it would not be the last time she'd sing that song.
It started again when Frank and Anne were pulling out the carrots from the ground. That's when she began to sing again. "Summertime lo-o-ovin'. Baby, why can't you be mi-"
"Dude!" Frank exclaimed.
And again, when they were shucking fresh corn on the cob. "Gonna head down to the beach, gonna do some beachy things."
"Dude!"
And again, as Frank and Anne walked back to the house after a long day. The Thai girl was singing again. However, Frank was more annoyed than ever by the song, and he could not take it anymore. "It's summertime lo-o-o-"
"Dude! Quit it!" Frank blew up in annoyance as he turned around to face her, throwing his arms up.
"I'm sorry, I can't help it, it's stuck in my head, and I can't get it out," Anne said, genuinely sorry for annoying her friend. She doesn't even know why she was singing it.
"Well, for my sanity and yours, we gotta get that song outta there," Frank said, pointing to his head.
They both went back down into their room as Frank scrolled through his songs. "Alright, let's go for this song," Frank said as they sat on his bed together. That's when he put on After Dark by Mr. Kitty. Together they waited as the song started, and all they heard was a piano playing. "It takes a moment for the lyrics to come on...."
And that's when the singing began, and both kids sat close together as they bobbed their heads to the music, especially as it increased in intensity. As she enjoyed the song, Anne looked at Frank and paused as she watched him enjoying the music with his eyes closed. Smiling, she was happy to see him enjoying himself. A person as good as him with a life as rough as his deserves to be happy, and Anne loved seeing that cute smile.
When she thought about his cute smile, Anne instantly blushed, and in her panic she just blurted out, "LOVIN' IN THE SUMMERTIME!"
"AAH!" Frank jumped off the bed and let out a yell of fright. Anne quickly covered her mouth and looked at her best friend with wide eyes as she blushed with embarrassment.
Turning off the music, Frank stood up with a look of concern. "Anne, are you feeling well?" He asked, before reaching out to place the back of his hand on her temple. But she jumped off the bed away from him.
"Yep! Yep! Just all good! I'm gonna use the restroom!" Anne quickly jogged out of the room, leaving Frank in a state of confusion.
A few minutes later, Frank was standing in front of the bathroom door with Sprig, Hop Pop, and Polly. "She's been in there for 10 minutes. And I need to go!" Hop Pop exclaimed.
It was then that the four of them heard the summertime song in the bathroom. And just hearing it was enough to make them all cringe. "Ah, come on, Anne! You've got better songs than this, girl!" Polly yelled, banging her fist on the door.
"But...didn't Anne delete the song from her phone?" Sprig asked Frank.
At that moment, Frank knew that something wasn't right. He knocked on the door and slowly started to open it. "Anne? Are you alright? What's going—" Frank stopped when he peeked inside and saw what was happening with Anne. And to say that he was shocked would be an understatement. "WHAT THE HELL?!" He yelled, slamming the door open. The frog family looked inside and gasped at what they saw.
Anne was floating in front of the bathroom sink, appearing to be in a trance. She had purple beams coming out of her mouth and her pupils dilated. And from her mouth sang the summertime song. The others watched in wide-eyed shock before Anne suddenly returned to normal, landing on her feet, and the music stopped playing. She panted with a look of fear on her face.
"Anne? Are you okay?" Frank asked, worried about her.
"I don't-" Anne said, before she started singing and floating again until she went back to normal. "-know! I can't-" She floated again and went back to normal. "Control it."
"When did this all start?" Hop Pop asked with wide eyes.
"And why are you singing that horrible song?!" Polly shouted.
Frank walked over to her and placed a concerned hand on her shoulder. "I don't know! I just started singing it this morning, thinking I got it stuck in my head, but now—" Anne was interrupted when she started singing and floating again, until she went back to normal. "WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME!?"
The same thing happened again. Hop Pop walked over to her and examined Anne. "Hmm. Singing it this morning, you say?" He asked as Anne's body stopped again. "I've seen all I need to. You... have been cursed!"
"Cursed?" Anne asked incredulously, only to sing again for a second. "That's a thing here?!"
"This land of ours is home to many arts, Anne. Sculpture, mosaics, and of course...." Hop Pop suddenly used a sinister voice to say, "THE DARK ARTS!"
Freaking out, Sprig placed his hands on his head. "Cursed?! But-but how? When?" He asked.
"Well, a curse takes about a night to kick in. Did either of you upset anyone yesterday?" Hop Pop asked all the kids.
The moment that he did, only one person came to mind. "Maddie!" Frank, Anne, and Sprig gasped at each other. The Thai Girl's body floated and sang again, before the curse turned off. Allowing her to point towards the window while looking at Sprig.
"Dude, you've got to go talk to her!" She exclaimed.
"And do it soon! I can't stand this song!" Polly said, covering her ear holes with her flippers.
Nervous, Sprig tried to devise an excuse to avoid talking to Maddie. "Uh, hey! Look." He gestured to Anne, who wasn't singing again. "I think it's getting better." But then her body sang again for a second.
"Sprig, we have to go talk to Maddie. Only she can reverse this!" Frank said, looking at Sprig with a pleading look. He didn't want Anne to be cursed forever.
Sprig sighed. "You're right......Or maybe we can try and sleep it off. The curse will likely go away in the morning." He said with a hopeful smile.
Seeing that Sprig wasn't going to budge, Anne sighed in defeat. "Alright, but I've got a really bad feeling about where this is headed." She said to the others, before she started floating and singing.
Luckily by the time night rolled around, the curse started to die down. But Anne was struggling to keep it under control in her mouth. Muttering in her sleep, she tossed and turned in her bed, sweating cold sweat down her face as she struggled with the spell placed on her. That is, until she couldn't take it anymore.
Anne opened her eyes, but she wasn't in the basement. Alone, she was standing in a gray void. Standing to her feet, she looked around. "Hello?" She asked, her voice echoing all around. Anne started wandering aimlessly. "Hello?"
Suddenly, a giant speaker emerges from the ground playing the summertime sound. Anne turned to try and run away, but her path was blocked by another speaker coming out of the ground. Both devices grew larger and bombarded Anne's ears with the awful song.
Growling in frustration, Anne slapped her ears to make it stop. "Get out, get out!" She said, before letting out an enraged scream. "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!"
With her right hand, Anne jammed it into her ear and dug around for the song. The moment she felt she grabbed something, the Thai girl pulled out an earwax-covered cassette from her brain. Finally freeing herself, she threw it far away.
Anne laughed victoriously but suddenly gasped when she saw a giant shadow emerge from where she had thrown it. The shadow then ran towards a terrified Anne.
"AAAAH!" Anne shot up from her bed with a startled gasp. Breathing heavily, she looked around to see that she was back in her bed, but Frank wasn't in his bed. Groaning, she rubbed her head.
But that's when she noticed something about herself. "The song. It's gone!" She exclaimed joyfully. Jumping out of bed in her sleeping clothes, she ran up the stairs and swung open the door. Anne then ran into the kitchen, where the others were eating breakfast. "Guys! Guys!"
"Huh? What's up?" Frank asked, looking at her with the frog family, all four of them confused.
"Why you screaming?" Polly asked.
"The song's not in my head anymore! It's gone!" Anne exclaimed with a big grin.
"That's awesome, dude!" Frank said as he jumped to his feet, smiling with her.
"See? What did I tell you?" Sprig glouted with a proud smile on his face. "We didn't need to have an awkward moment with Maddie. "Now we never have to hear that dumb song again."
But just as he said that, the moment was ruined when they suddenly heard the song again. Gasping, the humans and frog family turned their heads in the direction it was coming from, and to their horror, they realized that the situation had gone much worse than they thought.
What they saw was a large cassette as tall as a human adult with stick arms and legs, and red sunglasses standing behind them in the doorway. It was playing that horrible song and dancing to it.
No one could believe their eyes as they looked at the being in horror. "What the fuck is that?" Frank asked as the giant cassette continued to play.
Hop Pop said with a horrified expression. "I have no idea what I'm looking at."
But that was when Anne had a thought in her head. In her dream, she was able to get the song out of her head. However, that just meant that now it was free. "I think the song must've left my head and manifested itself into a physical form." She said, grabbing her hair while freaking out.
"Well, turn it off!" Polly exclaimed, covering her ear holes.
"Hey, dancing-song dude! Knock it off!" Anne yelled at the cassette. But the curse just kept dancing. Annoyed, the Thai girl walked up to it. "Dude, come on, quit it! Seriously, man! I'm sick of this song!"
The cassette started drumming on Anne's head. "Get off!" She yelled furiously before jumping at it. But instead of tackling the cassette, she phased right through it and crashed on the ground.
"Oh my God, it's a ghost tape!" Frank yelled, pointing at it with a scared look.
Hop Pop scoffed at that. "Please. It's not a ghost, Frank. It's just music. You can't touch music." He said, before looking directly in front of himself with a haunted expression. "But music can touch you."
"Oh, barf. How do we get rid of it?" Anne asked, walking back to the table with her arms crossed.
"I don't know. If we just ignore it, it'll probably just go away." Sprig suggested with a nervous smile.
"No, Sprig! Enough is enough!" Frank told the pink frog with an angry expression. He walked over to him, grabbed him by his shirt, and pulled him out of his chair before setting him on the ground. "You will talk to Maddie, get her to lift this curse, and that's that."
Sprig groaned out loud. "Fine, fine. But it's gonna be soooooo awkward."
"I don't care!" Anne yelled at him. "You're breaking up with Maddie the right way. Now let's go!" She grabbed his arm and started dragging him towards the door with Frank.
But the curse wasn't going to leave Anne just yet. The cassette followed her, Frank, and Sprig all the way into town. Singing and dancing all the way, no matter how much they tried to get away. As they ran across Wartwood, people heard the horrible song playing, and they weren't happy about it.
Eventually, they went to the Flour's bakery shop and burst through the door. "Mr. Flour!" They yelled, running toward the counter.
"Huh?" Maddie's father turned around after putting in another bread dough into the oven. He saw the kids running up to him, panting and sweating, and smiled. "Well, if it isn't my future son-in-law and his weird friends. How can I help you?"
"Mr. Flour, please! We need to know where your daughter is. It's an emergency!" Anne said with a pleading look on her face.
"Well, what could be the...." He trailed off when the cassette phased through the wall and ran over to the kids. Standing behind the three of them, the curse started dancing again while continuing to sing the song. Mr. Flour stared at the cassette with wide eyes as it blasted the terrible music in his shop. "Is...he with you?"
"That's why we need to talk to Maddie. Do you know where she is?" Frank asked.
"She's off making her deliveries right now. She should be going to your house." Maddie's father said.
"Huh, you know, you're being rather supportive," Anne said, raising an eyebrow.
Mr. Flour raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't I be?"
Sprig raised his hand with a smile. "I broke up with your daughter."
A moment later, the three kids were kicked out of the shop by Mr. Flour. They landed on the ground, with the cassette diving out of the doorway and doing a front flip before going back to dancing and singing. "Tell your grandfather he can say goodbye to his 50% off!" The father yelled at Sprig before slamming the door closed.
The kids groaned on the ground in pain. "Well, that's just great." Sprig said. The three kids stood up and dusted themselves off. However, they stopped, and their eyes widened.
In front of them was a mob of angry villagers who were sick of hearing the song. "I'm mad!" Wally yelled.
After being chased out of town, Frank, Anne, and Sprig returned to the house. They were scratched up and exhausted as they walked up to the front porch. "Okay, I think we...I think we lost them." Anne said, lying down on the ground. Frank and Sprig joined her and sat down on the dirt.
"At least we outran that curse." Sprig said as he stared up at the sky.
"Now, all we have to do is wait until Maddie gets here," Frank said.
"Got Mr. Plantar's bread order here."
"AAAH!" Frank, Anne, and Sprig yelled in fright and jumped up when Maddie seemingly appeared out of nowhere and was standing in front of them holding a bread basket with Frank, Anne, and Sprig's dough figures.
"She's here! Someone hide me!" He was about to run away when Frank grabbed him by the neck.
"No, you're going to be a man!" He said with a stern glare and placed his friend in front of Maddie. Sprig looked at the frog girl and winched upon seeing her staring at him with a frown.
"Oh... Hey, Maddie." He said nervously.
"Sprig," she said.
Anne nudged Sprig to Maddie with her hands and said, "Stop stalling, dude."
Sprig turned to Maddie, smiling nervously. "Uh..." The pink frog groaned, trying to build up the courage to say what he needed to, before finally letting it out in a raised voice. "Maddie, I'm sorry for the way I broke up with you! It was wrong of me to have Anne do it, and doubly wrong that we didn't do it face to face."
Maddie looked at him, mildly peeved. "Well, your breakup literally hit me in the face. But as much as I would've preferred an actual conversation, I was fine with what you wrote."
Sprig sighed in relief. "Oh, thank goodness."
Anne nudged Frank's arm. "Told ya. Breakup 'qua-ween.'" Frank rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"So, can you take the curse off of us?" Sprig asked Maddie before begging on his knees. "Please?"
Maddie raised an eyebrow. "What curse?"
Suddenly, the cassette came out of nowhere and came to a skidding stop in front of the kids. With the song still going, it continued dancing.
"That curse!" The three kids screamed, pointing at the curse.
"For the love of Frog-God, make it stop!" Begging Maddie for mercy, Frank got on his knees with Anne as they clasped their hands together.
Maddie stared at the curse as it continued dancing and singing, seemingly unphased by the music. She will admit, cursing someone with a song this terrible was impressive. "Sorry, but I can't."
"Why not?!" Frank and Anne whined simultaneously.
"Curses can only be lifted by the caster, and this isn't my curse." Maddie shrugged with her arms behind her back.
Anne gasped in shock. "What?!"
"But if it wasn't you, then who?" Sprig asked, wondering what kind of animal would want to curse them.
Maddie thought the same thing. Who would want to hurt them? The person responsible was knowledgeable in magic but was dangerous if they were willing to place curses on anyone. They must be stopped. So, Maddie brought out a mortar bowl full of soil, ground it with a pestle, and sprinkled a pinch of minerals on it. She grabbed a hand of the soil before the frog girl threw it onto the floor and a purple cloud of smoke engulfed both Frank, Anne, and Sprig, making them cough.
The smoke dissipated to reveal a glowing blue trail on the floor, leading down the road. "This trail will lead us to the caster." Maddie said to the others before she ran off with Frank, Sprig, and Anne in pursuit. Following behind was the summertime song. "Quickly! Before it goes cold."
The blue magic trail led Maddie, Sprig, Frank, and Anne to chase it into the forest. The summertime curse followed not too far behind.
"Why'd you think it was me who cursed you?" Maddie asked Sprig.
"Well, you do give off a creepy vibe." Sprig admitted.
Offended, Maddie looked back at him. "Just because I seem creepy to you doesn't mean I'm a bad person. I'll have you know, I learned magic to help people, not hurt them. Sheesh! Appearances aren't everything, Sprig." She chastised the boy frog before continuing to run ahead of him.
Sprig slowed down to a halt as her words sank into him. "Yeah, well, that's.... That's a really good point." He said as Frank and Anne stopped next to Sprig.
"Well, this will all likely end in tears," Frank said. They gasped when they heard the song and quickly rushed away after Maddie.
As they followed the magic trail, the kids jumped through a wall of underbrush when they came across something that made them gasp in shock. The magic led them to an old-looking storage shed in the woods, where it squeezed itself inside through the gap in the closed doors. Frank glanced at Anne and the frogs. This was it; the villain must be in here. He pulled out his combat knife and walked towards the shed with the others behind him.
Frank slowly pushed the door open with one hand on it and the other holding his knife in a reverse grip. The kids peeked inside, but it was too dark to see anything. Cautiously, they walked inside.
"What kind of evil person would live in a place like this?" Anne asked before the door closed behind her and the others, making them all gasp.
That's when a mushroom light turned on to their left. They looked and were confused to see it was attached to a shelf with lollipops. Another light revealed a chest labeled as sweets. Another mushroom lit up near barrels that each had different candies in them. More and more lights turned on all around the shed, showing it was full of sweets. However, when the last lantern turned out, it revealed the mastermind of the curse leaning against the wall.
"Hello, children," Barry said with a wicked smile as he lifted up the brim of his head to look at them. Laughing at the shocked expression on their faces. "Enjoying the curse I put on you?"
"Barry?!" Frank exclaimed while Anne and Sprig put their hands on their cheeks. "You cursed us?!"
Suddenly, the cassette curse kicked the door while blasting its song. The kids screamed upon seeing it, until Barry snapped his fingers. The curse stopped singing and dancing and just stood behind the group. Blocking their way to the door.
"Man, that song is annoying. Why would you even listen to it?" Barry asked Anne with a cringe.
"Why, Barry? Why?" Sprig cried to the frog that had tormented their lives for the past two days.
"Why?" Barry asked with a jolly smile, until he snarled at the kids. "I'll tell you why, you little shit! It's because of her!" He pointed his cane at Anne.
"Me?! What did I do?!" Anne exclaimed, glaring at him.
"Surely you remember barging into me at the market two days ago? Spilling my entire stock of blue moon berries that only grow once every ten years. They were priceless. I played it cool and was sweet because my image is half my business. I may look nice, but I'm a petty and vengeful son of a bitch on the inside!" He let out a burst of maniacal laughter.
Maddie glanced at Frank, Sprig, and Anne, and gave them a nudge. Making them admit how wrong they were. "Yeah, that was our bad. Looks can be deceiving. We get it." Anne said, rubbing the back of her head.
"Ah, right, right. The lesson thing." Sprig said, snapping his fingers.
"Not everyone's as bad as they seem," said Frank.
"And now to resume your punishment!" Barry said with a grin and held up his fingers to snap.
"Wait, please!" Frank exclaimed, holding up his hands at Barry to get him to stop. "It doesn't have to be like this. What Anne did was an accident, but cursing us isn't the way."
He looked at Anne, prompting her to gesture to him. "He's right!" She said, before walking in front of the group with an apologetic expression. "Look, what happened yesterday was a mistake. I was dumb, and I did things that shouldn't have happened. I shouldn't have let Sprig talk me into breaking up him and Maddie, and I shouldn't have knocked over your berries. It's my fault, and I'm so sorry. Please lift the curse, Barry."
After hearing Anne's heartfelt apology, Barry took a moment to think. Making the kids believe that he was considering if Anne learned her lesson. "Hmm, let me think—NEVER!" He shouted. "Not only am I petty, but I'm very unforgiving," Barry said, crossing his arms and turning his back to them.
Then he snapped his fingers, and the curse started back up again. "Nooooooo!" Frank, Anne, and Sprig yelled as the cassette began singing and dancing.
Maddie, however, glared at Barry. "As a curse wielder myself, this abuse of magic offends me." She said, pulling out two small sacks filled with curses that she made.
"Hmm?" Barry wasn't too concerned with what she said, until she threw one of the sacks at him. However, she missed and hit the mushroom next to him. Cursing it with eyes. "Oh, goodness!"
"You should never curse someone unless they really deserve it. And, buddy, you deserve it." Maddie said, as the summertime song continued playing.
"We'll ask one more time, Barry. Lift the curse." Frank said, glaring at the psychotic frog with his knife in hand, ready to fight.
"Oh, you wanna go?!" Barry ran to one of the barrels and pulled out his own curse sacks. "Then let's go!" He yelled and threw the bags at the kids. Frank, Anne, and Maddie got out of the way, but Sprig was fast enough and was hit by the spell.
"Sprig!" The others exclaimed in concern.
However, when the smoke dissipated, it revealed Sprig was fine, but cursed. His entire body was covered in orange hair, making him look like a giant furball. He lifted the hair covering his eyes and looked at himself. Yelling in shock at his new state. "What have you done to me?!"
Frank glared at Barry, but gasped when he saw the mad frog through a sack at Anne. "Look out!" He pushed her out of the way, only to get hit by the curse.
"Frank!" Anne gasped.
When the dust settled, everyone in the room was confused by what Frank was supposed to be. He had an awkward, non-animal-like appearance, which included red fur all over his body, big eyes, and a long, hooked nose that looked more like a beak, still wearing his clothes and hat.
"Uh, why do I look like Gonzo?!" Frank exclaimed, touching his long nose.
Anne walked up to him and chuckled. "Oh, come on, it's not that bad looking." She said, flicking his nose. That's when a spell hit her, turning her into a big brown bird with a gray beak and bird legs while still wearing her school uniform.
Frank yelped in shock. "Anne, are you okay?"
Anne, however, was surprisingly calm. "You know, it's actually not that bad. Check this out!" She knelt down on a floorboard and put her beak into a hole. Frank watched wide-eyed as she pulled out a large yellow worm with her teeth. "Ha!" Anne tossed up the worm and gobbled it in her mouth. She smiled and hummed happily at how delicious it was, until immediately frowning. "I hate this curse."
Barry laughed villainously as he turned to Maddie, the only one that hadn't felt his wrath. He threw a sack at her, but Frank quickly grabbed her and pulled her out of the way, preventing Maddie from being turned into a mushroom. The Hispanic boy then placed her on his shoulders. Maddie grinned at Frank before he charged at Barry, dodging another sack as Maddie threw a curse at the candy-maker.
Frank yelled as he ran towards Barry and stabbed at him, only for the tall frog to jump out of the way. Barry landed a few feet from them and threw more spells at them, while Maddie threw hers in retaliation. The mad frog and Frank would dodge out of the way, leading to the curses transforming whatever random objects they landed on. Sprig and Anne quickly got out of the way of the crossfire.
Barry and Maddie would continue to throw their curses at each other, all while the summertime song would sing and dance. However, one spell would land in front of Barry's feet, knocking him off his balance, and he'd hit his back against the cauldron. The same thing would happen to Frank, knocking him off his feet and landing on the ground with Maddie.
Barry reached into his cauldron to get another curse, but gasped when he only pulled out one. "Ah! My last curse." He said, before growling at the kids.
Maddie groaned as she stood back up and reached for another curse. But to her dismay, she was out of ammo. "I'm out!"
"What do we do?" Anne asked, hiding behind a shelf near her.
"Give me your hands," Maddie told Frank and Anne.
"Uh, sure," Frank said as he and Anne held out their hands to her. Maddie then grabbed a handful of his fur and the Thai girl's feathers and yanked them out. "Ow!"
Maddie then rushed over to Sprig and yanked out some of his hair. "Ow. What the heck?" He asked, but Maddie just ran back to Frank.
"Let's go!" She yelled. Frank nodded and got up. He then charged at Barry as he charged at him and the frog girl on his shoulders. The tall frog let out a battle cry as he ran at the kids. Maddie tore off her sleeve, put the fur, hair, and feathers into it, and tied it up with a piece of string. "Get ready to catch and throw."
Getting what her plan was, Frank grinned at Barry while glaring. "Years of junior league baseball, don't fail me now!"
"Gotcha!" Barry exclaimed, throwing the curse at them.
"Now!" Maddie exclaimed, jobbing off his shoulders into the air. Frank expertly caught the curse in his left hand. As Maddie got ready to throw her sack at Barry, Frank went through the motions he's done for years as he placed one leg in front of his body, and prepared to throw the curse back at Barry.
The frog stopped in his tracks as he realized what they were about to do. "Oh, dear."
Frank and Maddie threw simultaneously, hitting Barry and creating an explosion that wrecked the house. As the blast went off, the summertime song curse poofed into dust, as the curse finally ended.
When the dust finally settled, Barry was coughing before he strangely squawked like a chicken. That was when the candy-maker looked down, gasping in horror upon seeing that he had been turned into a giant chicken. "Oh, no! My beautiful body!"
Maddie smirked at him triumphantly as Frank, Anne, and Sprig—who, for some reason, was in his underwear—all coughed as they stepped out of the purple smoke. They looked around, before gasping when they saw that the cassette was gone.
"We're...back to normal." Sprig exclaimed happily.
"Maddie made the song disappear!" Anne exclaimed, so happy that they wouldn't hear that song anymore.
"Maddie, you did it!" Frank exclaimed with a big grin.
"All right, you crazy kids bested me," Barry said, walking up to the kids as they scowled at him. He then bowed his head and extended his wings. "Now go on, turn me back."
"After what you put us through?" Frank exclaimed angrily as he pointed his knife at Barry. "You think we're gonna let you go free?"
"He's right. You're way too dangerous." Maddie said, crossing her arms and turning her head away from him with closed eyes.
Barry cawed in shock. "What?! You can't just leave me like this."
Sprig surprisingly felt guilty for the frog-turned-chicken and walked up to her. "Aw, come on, Maddie. We did him wrong."
Maddie looked at him before looking at Barry. Maybe he was right. This all started because of an accident. Barry was a menace, but perhaps even he deserved a second chance. Relenting, she sighed. "Fine. I'll change him back." She said, placing her arms behind her back as she looked at the destroyed candy shelves as some lollipops fell down on the floor. "....But for a price."
When the kids returned back to town, they each carried with them a crate filled with candy and sweets. With the deal being made, Maddie turned Barry back to normal, and they all left. But not before the frog girl warned him of what would happen if he did something like this again.
"Any chance we could get some of this candy?" Sprig asked as they stopped before Maddie's house and set the crates down.
"No way," Maddie said.
Standing up straight, Anne sighed happily. "You know, I think we've all learned something from all this. Perhaps behind every curse, it's secretly a blessing."
"Nope. Not a chance in Frog-Hell, Anne." Frank said.
Sprig looked at Maddie and started to feel guilty for how he handled things with her. "Thanks for helping us, Maddie." He said to her, gaining her attention. "And sorry the engagement had to end like this. Friends?"
Maddie looked at the pink frog's hands and smiled. "Friends." She shook his hand. Suddenly, she pulled him close to her face and said in a raspy voice. "I can't wait to hang out."
With that over with, Frank, Anne, and Sprig started walking home together. "Well, that's over with," Frank said with his hands in his pockets.
"Yeah, I'm sorry for causing all this, guys," Anne said, rubbing the back of her head.
"It's fine, Anne. At least everything's back to normal." Sprig said with a smile.
"Hey, Sprig!" Sprig stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to see Ivy standing a few feet away. "Wanna hang out? I heard there's a dragonfly nest around here!"
Sprig stammered for a moment, blushing at the idea of being around his crush. Alone. Frank smirked and nudged him with his foot. "Go get her, man." Smiling, Sprig hopped over to Ivy, and the two ran off into the forest together. All while Anne and Frank watched with smiles on their faces. Happy to see their friend hanging out with the girl he really liked.
AN: And that was the Cursed episode. I bet you all weren't expecting a Regular Show parody, but hear we are. However, we were still able to see Frank's cursed form in the form of a red colored Gonzo from the Muppets.
Yeah, weren't expecting him to be Gonzo, huh? I wanted to throw a curveball when it came to Frank's cursed form, so I went with the puppet no one could tell what it was.
The next chapter will be one I'm definitely excited for, so I hope you all will stay tuned for when it comes out.